Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-08-25

and this sword Cat least SO he said) and
turned loose"
WELL" said Sir Henry, who had been
listening with breathless interest, land
what did he do then?"
'sOh. he seems, according to his account
to have gone through sufferings and hard.
| ships innumerable, and to have lived for
weeks on roots and berries, and such things
as he could catch and kill. But somehow
he did live, and at last, by slow degrees,
| made his way south and reached this
| place What the details of his journey
were [ never learnt; for I told him to re-
turn on the morrow, bidding one of my
head men look after him for the night.
The head man took him away, but the
| poor man had the itch so badly that the
head mans wife would not have him in
the hut for fear of catching it; so he was
given a blanket and told to sleep outside.
As it happened, we had a lion hanging
| about here Just then, and most tnhappily
he winded this most unfortunate wander
err and, springing on him, bit his head
right off without the people in the hut
knowing anything about it, and there was
an end of him and his story about the
white people; and whether or not there is
any truth in it is more than can tell you.
What do you think, Mr.. Quartermain?"
shook my head, and answered, Il don't
know. There are so many queer things
hidden away in the heart Of this great con-
tinent that | should be sorry to assert that
there was none. Anyhow, we mean to try
| and find out. We intend to journey to
| Lekakisera, and thence, if we live to get
so far, to this Lake Laga; and, if there are
any white people beyond, we will do our
best to find them"
'You are very venturesome people, said
Mr.. Mackenzie, with smile, and the sub
| ject dropped.
CHAPTER Iv.-ALPHoNsE AND HIS ANNETTE.
After dinner we thoroughly inspected all
| the outbuildings and grounds of the sta
ton, which / consider the most successful
as well as the most beautiful place of the
sort that have seen in Africa, and then
returned to the veranda, where we found
Unslopogaas taking advantage of this fav-
orable opportunity to thoroughly clean all
the rifles. This was the only aCorI; that he
ever did or was asked to do, for as Zulu
chief it was beneath his dignity to work
with his hands; but such as it was he did
it very well. 1t was a curious sight to see
the great Zulu sitting there upon the floor,
his battle-ax resting against the wall be-
hind him, with his long, aristocratic-look-
ing hands busily employed, delicately
and with the utmost care, cleaning the
mechanism of the breechloaders. He had
name for each gun. One--a double four
bore belonging to Sir Henry-was the
Thunderer; another, my 500 Express, which
had a peculiarly sharp report, was 'sthe
little one who spoke like a whip" the
Winchester repeaters were ''the women,
who talked so fast that you could not tell
one word from another;;'' the six Martins
were 1.-The common people, and so on with
them all. 1t was very curious to hear him
addressing each gun as he cleaned it, as
of the quaintest humor.
1t was the same with the battle-ax, which
he seemed to look upon as an intimate
friend, and to which he would at times
talk by the hour, going over all his old adj
ventures with it-and dreadful enough
some of them were. He, by a piece of
grim humor, had named his ak 'Inkosi-
kaasi,' which is the Zulu word for chief
tainess. For long while I could not
make out why he gave it such name, and
at last [ asked him; when he informed me
that the ak was evidently feminine, be-
cause of her womanly habit of prying deep
down into things, and that she was clearly
a chieftainess because all men fell down
before her, struck dumb at the sight of her
beauty and power. In the same way he
would consult ''Inkosikaasi'' when in any
dilemma; and when [ asked him why he
did SO, he informed me it was because she
must needs be wise, having Cooked into
50 many peoples brains"
I took up the ak and closely examined
this formidable weapon. 1t was, as have
said, of the nature of pole-aX. The haft
was made of an enormous rhinoceros horn,
and was three feet three inches long, about
an inch and a quarter thick: and with a
knob at the END Dis large as a Maltese
orange, left there to prevent the hand from
slipping This horn haft though it was
30 massive. was as flexible as cane, and
practically unbreakable; but, to make as
surance doubly sure it was whipped round
at intervals of a few inches with copper
wire-an the parts where the hands grip
being thus treated. Just above where the
haft entered the ak it was scored with a
number of little hicks, each nickrepresent-
ing man killed in battle with it. The ak
itself was made of the most beautiful steel,
and apparently of European manufacture,
though Umslopogaas did not know where
it came from, having taken it from the
hand of a chief he had killed in battle
many years before. 1t was not very heavy,
the head weighing two and a half pounds,
as near as I could judge. The cutting part
was slightly concave il shape-not con-
vex, as is generally the case with savage
battle-axes- sharp as a razor, ueasur-
ing five and three-quarter inches across
the widest part. From the back of the ak
sprang a stout spike four inches long, for
the last two of which it was hollow and
shaped like leather punch, with an open
ing for anything that was forced into the
hollow at the punch end to be pushed out
above;-in fact, in this respect it exactly
resembled a butchers pole-ax. Is was
with this punch end, as we afterward dis
covered, that Umslopogaas usually struck
when fighting, driving a neat round hole
in his adversary's skull, and only using
the broad cutting edge for a circular sweep,
OF sometimes in melee. I think he con-
sidered the punch heater and mors
sportsmanlike tool, and it was for his habit
Of pecking at his enemy with it that he got
his name of ssWoOdDecker - Certainly